IN YET more ‘When Presenters Go Bad’ news (see above), the inoffensive, publicity-shy presenters of Top Gear could be forced to apologise for ‘racist’ slurs about Mexicans.
The comments, made in a feature about Mexican cars, sparked a complaint to the BBC from Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza, the Mexican Ambassador to the UK, and the matter was then brought to the attention of Parliament.
Of course we feel it’s our duty to print what was said so you can see for yourself how offensive their comments are. Not because we find them quite funny. Honest.
It all starts when Richard Hammond jokes that Mexican cars are like their national stereotypes… “They’re going to be a lazy, feckless, flatulent oaf with a moustache, leaning against a fence asleep, looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat.”
James May then said Mexican food was ‘like sick with cheese on it’ followed by a stern Clarkson warning that the comments were a bit near the knuckle – but implying that the ambassador was unlikely to complain because he would be too busy watching TV or sleeping.
The angry Mexican official said: “Yareeba! Yareeba! Underlay! Underlay! Deez comments are deeply offensive greeengo! Yareeba!”